Damn, I've been looking for these for a long time, and finally I found a bunch of screens on Gamespot that are um....shall we say dwell not in the realm of myth and high expectation?
Here's a promo screen. Pretty, no? Look at the IQ, the texture quality, the clarity. Lovely stuff, really. Now, of course, all lemmings know that it looks EXACTLY like this when you're playing it.
And here's the real world:
Ruh roh. Houston, get a confirmation on that ugly screen. Ugly Duckling, is that a false advertising? Ah....I'm getting a transmission from HQ, they say that you're cherry picking.
And here's some backup:
So, right then. Rather than discussing the merits of my screenshot picking (which would be ironic considering the first screen is the loveliest one I could find), I ask that you help yourself: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/gearsofwar2/images.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gsimage&tag=images%3Bheader%3Bmore&page=1
Then answer this question: Which of those screens do you think are BOGUS, and which of these screens do you think are actual gameplay screens, captured from the framebuffer?
It sure would be clever of Gamespot if they added aliasing and full-screen blur, fooling with the IQ, texture filtering/quality retroactively just to make my point for me. What I'm trying to say is, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining people. You've been feeding us garbage screens since this game came out and claiming they're real-time gameplay screens. May I ask that we simply try to be OBJECTIVE for once and don't make the presumption that just because a screen looks nice it's representative of gameplay? I will even grant the opposite, but you will notice that there is a very firm dichotomy in this Nov 3rd batch of screenies, either they look AWESOME, or they look TERRIBLE (at least not living up to GeoW's tremendous ethos. Either those screens are HEAVILY, HEAVILY, transparently doctored to look amazing, or Gamespot wants to prove my point for me.
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/gearsofwar2/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review
"All-new, great-looking environments
The original Gears of War was a spectacular-looking game, and the sequel maintains this high technical and artistic quality. Instead of pushing for increased visual fidelity, the graphics engine adds a couple of other dimensions to the presentation, with walls that crumble under gunfire and dozens of enemies onscreen at once. These new features don't necessarily affect the gameplay, but they look good and help add to the dramatic scale that the designers have chosen"
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/gearsofwar/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review
"Consider Gears of War to be the game that raised the bar for how console games should look from here on out. The character models are thick and look outstanding. The gray, war-torn environments are nicely varied throughout the game, and the game is full of amazing standout visual moments [...]"
Given that, I don't think the latter is very damn likely. Discuss, flame, whatever.
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